Back In Business

My baby and I have been reunited and it feels so good. The last two days have been spent restoring my machine to where I wanted it. And I've learned a few things. In restoring my back up I realized some of my iTunes music didn't save. Or at least I couldn't find it. But I figured out how to save from my iPod onto iTunes. It isn't hard but it took most of the day to move the files over. I've loaded up my Microsoft Office and I'm back to editing. I did a lot of editing last week on my desktop so I'm actually about 60% done. I think I'll have it ready by Friday. I hope, anyway, I'm eager to start on something new.

So Where was I?

I got my hard drive backed up. I want it to be known, I could have done it myself, but I realized the price of data recovery software wasn't much less than having a computer repair person do it. So I surrendered and took the hard drive down and had what I needed recovered. Now that I have validated myself, I can move on...

I have my MS open on my desktop. I wrote the darn thing in Word 07 and I had to revert it to Word 03. There are some big differences. One of the biggest was a word symbol that didn't translate from one version to the next. Irritates me because I should have started editing in the older version anyway. So I got to start over. That's okay since all but 30 pages had been done. I should whiz through. And then I have to format the headers and footers. Ugh. I could spend a week on this. I tend to get obsessed about it. I want perfection. I don't think my agent cares.

I miss my laptop. My email is building up because I don't have the patience to sit at a strange computer and read. It means spending time back in the office which is far from the hub of the house so it is grossly inconvenient.

Anyway, the situation is making me cranky. I miss my little machine.

Black and Blue All Over

Things were going pretty good last week. I had most of my book edited. I figured I'd finish all my editing today and ship it to my agent tomorrow.

Alas, my optimism was my downfall.

I got the dreaded blue screen of death on my laptop. I wasn't too concerned, it isn't as big a deal in Vista as it is in XP. However, the black screen of death was more worrisome. To make a long story short, my computer won't boot up. I've tried everything, even tried reformatting and nothing doing. After talking to the manufacturer, it was decided I have a faulty hard drive. Luckily it is still under warranty so it is going back. Yes, I backed up, but not the latest edits. To say I'm really annoyed with myself is putting it mildly. Anyway, after studying the matter at some length, I think I can get into my hard drive and recover the data.

I can't even contemplate the loss of my stuff. Like I said, I did do a back up, but to be honest, I'm not sure how to restore it. I forgot to research that. However, I know the info is there and someone would be able to find it. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to recover my hard drive enough to pull off my documents. But if not, I'm going go ballistic.

My hubby has kindly offered to let me use his laptop, I can even keep it in my computer space and use it there. However, I came to realize how personl my pc is to me. Its like my car. I know its quirks, I feel comfortable on the keyboard. I know where I keep things. I really miss it. I'll be glad when it comes back.

In other news, I'm off to a book signing. Patricia Briggs will be signing her new book in the Mercy Thompson series, Bone Crossed at a Barnes and Noble not too far from me. I'm pretty excited, she is one of my favorite authors right now. I've been holding off buying the book and lucky me, I got a coupon from B&N the other day. It will be a nice break from the Shakesperean tragedy I'm going through with the computer.

How often do you back up? Are you going to go back up right now after reading this post? How emotionally attached are you to your computer?

Cool Things

Last week was insane. The whole work-home thing totally sucks. But since the bulk of you know all about that, we can skip that discussion. It didn't help that the weather was miserable. Today is actually sunny and it has lifted my mood considerably. This is a picture of my new stained glass window. We designed it with the help of the artist and picked out the colors. Isn't it awesome? This is a picture of the view from the window. When we planned the window, I made it clear I wanted to preserve this view. I'd like to cut the neighbors' trees down, but I don't think they are going to go for that (I'm kidding).

I found this little do-dad at Costco this weekend. It's called an Alto Cordless by Logitech. One thing I miss about the desktop is how nice and high the monitor is for my vision and for a full-sized keyboard. I get both with this. Of course my notebook is starting to tire. The kids don't like using it because the letters have all worn off the keyboard. But this device really helps.